Market Meltdown Kicking Into High Gear

Stocks were killed again on Monday as major support levels were taken out, triggering stop losses and heavy technical selling into the close. The major averages were led lower by financials once again with banks such as Citigroup

and Bank of America

losing nearly 10% each. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged another 258 points to 10,655, a new 2011 low. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 10,653 and 10,912. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF

lost 2.85% to $109.93. Volume was heavier than usual with around 363.5 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 297 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF

, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, fell 2.57% to $51.14. Year-to-date, the QQQ is now down 6.1%. Crude oil followed stocks lower on the session. NYMEX crude futures lost 3.60% to $76.35. Spot Brent crude lost 2.89% to $101.25. The United States Oil Fund ETF

shed 2.46% to $29.74. Gold reversed recent losses, and bucked the stock market trend on Monday. NYMEX gold futures rose 2.33% to $1,660.10. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF

added 1.83% to $160.96. COMEX silver futures were up 1.29% to $30.47. Treasuries soared on the day as risk appetite plunged. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

added 2.75% to $123.81. The yield on the 10-Year note fell 15.9 basis points to 1.76%. The U.S. Dollar continued to rise on Monday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, surged 0.92% to $22.51. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.3267.